Safety attachment for railway-cars.



G. E. SULLIVAN.

SAFETY ATTACHMENT FOR RAILWAY CARS.

APPL IGATION IILED MAR. 10, 1910. v

Patented Apr. 4, 1911.

Z 4 ii! j a a a if f 1/ F I W dtionwqo UNITE STATES PATENT OFFIGE.

CHARLES E. SULLIVAN, 0F PUEBLO, COLORADO, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TOCHARLES BAILEY, OF MCCOOK, NEBRASKA.

SAFETY ATTACHMENT FOR RAILWAY-CARS.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES E. SULLIVAN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Pueblo, in the county of Pueblo and State of Colorado, haveinvented a new and useful Safety Attachment for Railway Cars, of whichthe following is a specification.

This invention relates to safety attachments for railway cars and hasfor its object to provide simple means whereby persons falling betweencars will be caught and thus prevented from dropping on to the track andinto the path of the wheels.

Another object is to provide a device of this character-which is simplein construction and can be readily placed in position, the same beingmore especially designed for use in connection with the ordinary boxcars although it can be used with various other forms of cars.

A further object is to provide safety devices which will automaticallyadjust themselves when the oars are traveling'on curves, thus preventingthe devices from becoming jammed or distorted.

lVith these and other objects in view, the invention consists in certainnovel details of construction and combination of parts hereinafter morefully described and pointed out in the claim.

In the accompanying drawings the preferred form of the invention hasbeen shown.

In said drawings,-Figure 1 is a side elevation of the meeting ends oftwo cars having the present improvements applied thereto, one of theguard strips being shown by dotted lines in raised position. Fig. 2 is aplan view of the parts shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a perspective View ofone of the guards.

Referring to the figures by characters of reference, A designates a carbody having brackets 2 secured to the sides thereof close to the couplera and pivotally mounted within these brackets is a rod 3 having asubstantially rectangular frame 4 extending therefrom. Stop projections5 preferably Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed March 10, 1910.

Patented Apr. 4, 1911.

Serial No. 548,425.

extend downwardly from the rod adjacent the ends of the frame and aredesigned to swing against the end of the car body A so as to support theframe normally in an inclined position. The frame may be provided withcross rods 6 or the like serving to prevent a person from fallingthrough the frame.

It is to be understood that a guard such as has been described isadapted to be secured to each end of the car and that when two cars arecoupled together upon a straight track, the guards will extend towardeach other and will almost touch, it being understood, of course, thatthe adjoining portions of the two guards are in a plane above thatoccupied by the two rods 3. Obviously, there fore, when the cars aretraveling around a curve, the guards will move together but, by reasonof the fact that they converge upwardly, they will not become jammed ordistorted as a result of this movement, but will swing upwardlysimultaneously, each guard pushing against the opposed one. When thecars again move on to a straight track the two guards will drop down totheir normal positions by gravity. It will be apparent that the guardswill thus constantly close the space between the two cars and should anyperson fall between the cars, he will be caught by the guards and thusprevented from falling on to the track and into the path of the wheels.

The construction of the guard can of course be varied and various otherchanges in the construction and arrangement of the parts can be madewithout departing from the spirit or sacrificing any of the advantagesof the invention as defined in the appended claim.

What is claimed is In a safety attachment for railway cars, thecombination with a car body, of brackets secured to the sides of thebody, a pivot rod mounted at its ends in the brackets, a framecomprisinga length of rod material bent near its ends to form a forwardportion and spaced side portions, the side portions of the In testimonythat I claim the foregoing frame being bent around the pivot rod near asmy own, I have hereto affixed my signathe ends thereof, and havingterminal porture in the presence of two Witnesses.

tions depending at an obtuse angle to the CHARLES E. SULLIVAN. 5 saidside portions and resting normally Witnesses:

against the car body and yieldably support- C. K. PUTNAM,

ing the frame in inclined position. A. B. YOUNG.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

